Fishbourne Roman Palace

Visitor guide to the largest Roman residence north of the Alps

Fishbourne Roman Palace is a museum and archaeological site in the village of Fishbourne, near Chichester in West Sussex. The building it protects is the largest known Roman domestic residence discovered north of the Alps, and its collection of in-situ floor mosaics is among the finest in Britain.

The palace was built around 75 AD, probably for Tiberius Claudius Cogidubnus, a British client king who allied with Rome during the invasion of 43 AD. At its peak, the complex covered an area equivalent to a modern football pitch, arranged around formal gardens in a symmetrical plan that echoed the great villas of the Mediterranean.

What to See

The museum building covers the excavated north wing of the palace, preserving the mosaic floors in their original positions. The most celebrated is the Cupid on a Dolphin mosaic, a striking composition of a winged figure riding a dolphin within a circular medallion, surrounded by geometric borders and sea creatures. It remains one of the most reproduced images in Romano-British archaeology.

Other highlights include the remains of the palace's underfloor heating system (hypocaust), fragments of painted wall plaster in vivid reds and blues, and a collection of artefacts recovered during excavations: pottery, coins, metalwork and personal items spanning three centuries of occupation.

Outside, the replanted Roman garden follows the original bedding trenches identified during excavation, giving visitors a sense of the formal landscape that once filled the central courtyard. Seasonal planting reflects what is known of Roman horticulture in Britain.

The Discovery

The palace lay buried and completely forgotten for centuries. In 1960, a workman cutting a trench for a new water main struck Roman rubble. The archaeologist Barry Cunliffe, then a young researcher, led the subsequent excavation, which revealed the scale of the building over several seasons of fieldwork. The discovery transformed understanding of Roman Britain in the first century AD.

The museum was purpose-built over the excavated remains and opened to the public in 1968. It drew over 250,000 visitors in its first season, a figure that reflected the extraordinary public interest in the find.

Key Dates

Connection to Old Fishbourne

The palace predates the Manor of Old Fishbourne by roughly a thousand years. When the Domesday Book recorded the manor in 1086, the palace had been buried for eight centuries. The two are linked by geography rather than direct legal succession: the manor lands overlay the same territory where Cogidubnus once held court.